Bonkers Blog July 2011

I
think the first reference made here to the high salaries paid to Bexley
council was on 2nd October last year
when the News Shopper reported that Bexley council declined to answer a question
on the subject at a council meeting. Since then various alternative approaches
have been tried, most often by Mr. Elwyn Bryant of the Bexley Council Monitoring
Group, but although he has the backing of the Secretary of State for Communities
and Local Government who has said that salaries should be no higher than £100,000
a year our council knows better, the main obstacle being leader Teresa O’Neill
who has said that the salaries are “good value for money” and that the Chief
Executive’s two hundred thousand plus various benefits is “worth every penny”.

Mr. Bryant‘s latest attempt to impress on Ms. O’Neill that she is hopelessly out
of touch with most residents is a petition which he is taking from
door-to-door,
and not just any old Bexley door, he is concentrating on houses within Teresa
O’Neill’s own ward of Brampton. His aim is to get 2,000 signatures and push a
reluctant council into a debate on the subject. Now that he is within a whisker
of the half way stage he has asked me to let you know how he is getting on.
He is helped by Mr. Mick Barnbrook and Mr. Nicholas Dowling who exposed
the untruthful figures Craske’s used to justify a tripling of the cost
of a Residents’ Parking Permit. Nicholas has promised to provide some more
shocking details of
Craske’s deception very soon.

Knocking on doors is a slow process because most people want to spend time
slagging off Bexley council. No one likes them which ensures a success rate of just a
little over 95%. Elwyn reports that by accident he knocked on
the door of a councillor whose spouse answered. The person concerned was
sympathetic but thought signing the petition might cause friction and
apologetically declined. Another unfortunate knock was on the door of Teresa
O’Neill’s parents who were unable to differentiate between staff salaries and
councillors’ allowances. Naturally they defended the latter but failed to
understand that the petition was on something different.

Several
councillors were asked to sign at the Boris Show last
Thursday and they all seemed to know about the petition already, no doubt
the aforementioned spouse spread the word. Councillors Davey, Gareth Bacon,
June Slaughter and former mayor Clark all refused to sign with a variety of
dismissive comments but councillor Sybil Camsey (Brampton ward) was particularly
scathing. She said that no petition is “worth the paper it is written on” and “no
one will take any notice” and that “I don’t care”. What she doesn’t care about
was not made clear. Maybe it is her seat, 2,000 of her own voters may take note
of her contempt for their views.

I asked Mr. Barnbrook to summarise the reasons people were giving for not
signing. He said there was a handful that said they were not interested in
politics but he was surprised by the larger number who believed that if the council
got hold of their name and address it would be
vindictive enough to
blacklist them. However the most interesting comment by far was, “I’d love to
mate but I’m a builder and I pay them so much in back handers already that I daren’t
risk wasting all that investment by going against them”.

I have heard that sort of thing before but I don’t see any way of getting cast
iron evidence.

Probably Sybil Camsey is right and petitions to Bexley council are not worth the
paper they are written on. That would surprise no one who has studied their
methods but if nothing else the petition will demonstrate the contempt of Bexley
councillors for their electorate and the petition will allow that message to be reinforced and promulgated
further. Mick said a satisfying number of householders asked if he was part of
the Bonkers mob and he most certainly is.